Scorsese took a break from the gangster films to make this brilliantly executed piece about a stand-up, who will stop at nothing to get his big break on TV Whenever Scorsese makes a comedy it has an edge to it (remember the nightmarish situation in After Hours?) and King of Comedy is no exception.
This is a movie which makes you shudder even as it is making you laugh. De Niro stars as Rupert Pupkin, the would-be stand-up whose ambition is far more impressive than his act. He is obsessed with becoming a star, and goes to extreme lengths when talk-show host Jerry Langford (Lewis) refuses him a slot on his programme.
De Niro is both tragic and ghastly as the over-ambitious, psychotic Pupkin, trapped in a weird fantasy world, while Lewis is, ironically, funnier than he has ever been in what is technically the straight-man role.
A deliciously dark commentary on the fine line between fame and infamy, which goes to great lengths to show just how far some people will go to achieve the former.
Verdict Worlds away from the bravura flash of other DeNiro-Scorsese collaborations, this underrated, claustrophobic, chilling satire is particularly prescient of today's celebrity-fixated society. A modern classic.
This is a movie which makes you shudder even as it is making you laugh. De Niro stars as Rupert Pupkin, the would-be stand-up whose ambition is far more impressive than his act. He is obsessed with becoming a star, and goes to extreme lengths when talk-show host Jerry Langford (Lewis) refuses him a slot on his programme.
De Niro is both tragic and ghastly as the over-ambitious, psychotic Pupkin, trapped in a weird fantasy world, while Lewis is, ironically, funnier than he has ever been in what is technically the straight-man role.
A deliciously dark commentary on the fine line between fame and infamy, which goes to great lengths to show just how far some people will go to achieve the former.
Verdict Worlds away from the bravura flash of other DeNiro-Scorsese collaborations, this underrated, claustrophobic, chilling satire is particularly prescient of today's celebrity-fixated society. A modern classic.